There is something evil going on in the Sun Belt Conference where their ranking has reached the notorious number of negative 666! Conference realignment has not been good for the Sun Belt. Unless you remember that the SEC is also in the Sun Belt region of the country, and since they’re still the best conference with a ranking of positive 1.705, we can’t blame the weather.

The Big 10 redeemed themselves this past week to the point of passing the Big 12 which only played two non-conference games, which they split, and fell to 5th among the so-called Big 5. That was the only change in the standings of the ten conferences.

Week three saw two big drops – one from a Big 5 conference and the other among the remaining 5. The Big 10 had a very poor showing and basically traded places with the Big 12. The Sun Belt managed to lose all their games and drop form 6th place to last in the conference standings. The SEC continues to dominate, and even though many want to claim the SEC is overrated, on-filed results don’t lie. The SEC continues to dominate the other Power 5 conferences to the point that their point total has risen every week.

Week Two has come and gone and the on-field action is reflected in the new rankings this week. The “Power 5” conferences still hold the top 5 positions and after this week’s action the margin between them and the other five has increased. Whereas, after the first week no conference was in the negative end of the rankings, we now have two conferences which have fallen into the minus side.

The former Big East, which looks more like the old Conference USA, has fallen onto hard times and is now the new cellar dweller. The conference which used to perennially dwell in the cellar, the Sun Belt Conference is now the best of the remaining five conferences – at least after the first two weeks.

A new year is here with a whole new conference make-up as several teams once again switched conferences and we move from the BCS era to the mini playoff era. Quite frankly, I’m not even sure I finished last years rankings, but it’s simple enough to go back and do so. If anyone asks for last years final conference rankings, I’ll be happy to calculate and post them.

In the mean time, what about 2014? Does this shake-up in the world of college football mean that I have to come up with a new formula? The answer is no. Part of the beauty of how I calculate these rankings is that it truly is unbiased. So what you’re going to see this year is the same accurate ratings based on conference head to head match-ups.

One difference, which is built-in, meaning I don’t have to change the formula, is that we now have five power conferences instead of six. Last year the American Conference was still afforded the distinction of a power conference due to their BCS tie-in; however, that has changed this year. With the Big East falling apart and the former major Big East teams being swallowed up by the Big 12, Big 10 and ACC, the once “better than perceived Big” East has fallen into the floundering American Conference.

So let’s see what the first week of college football in 2014 has revealed about conference strength.